Last fall, Tom Murray of Environmental Defense Fund started hearing people predict that green initiatives would be one of the early casualties of the recession.

But it is times like these, Tom says, when it is more important than ever to find opportunities to reduce environmental impacts because phasing out inefficiencies can save businesses money.

Tom’s case in point: As managing director of the corporate partnership program at EDF, he just finished working with private equity firm KKR to develop and implement the Green Portfolio Project.

Using Sealy, US Foodservice and Primedia as guinea pigs, the pilot program identified opportunities to reduce energy, fuel, waste and paper, all of which saved the three companies more than $16 million combined.

That’s just the tip of the iceberg, Tom says. He joined me on GreenBiz Radio to talk about the program and the lessons it teaches businesses trying to make their way through a slumping economy.